


In A Blood Stained Room That Smells Like Flowers

by SuzuyaJuuzou



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 13:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12133527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuzuyaJuuzou/pseuds/SuzuyaJuuzou
Summary: [Set before Casino but after the you-know-what]Akechi smiled and Akira had never wanted him to stop smiling more than this moment.





	In A Blood Stained Room That Smells Like Flowers

Gloveless hands curl into tiny fists clutching Akira’s shirt. They’re lying on the ground of Akechi’s palace, just the two of them, and he’s straddling Akira, hair falling like a curtain between them and the rest of the world. In any other setting, Akira would have called this beautiful — a dream come true because he’s spent too many short months fantasizing of the other’s lips on his, cheeks tinted with a cute shade of pink from Akira’s endless teasing, and voice gasping oh so sweetly.

But that’s not what’s happening.

What _is_ happening is Akechi in his usual attire of white shirt being unusually ruffled, slacks slightly dirty, and Akira in his own casual hoodie-jean combo which keeps distorting between that and his Phantom Thief outfit. Akechi is shaking, tears running down his cheeks, dripping onto Akira’s who is so desperately trying not to shed any more than they need. And blood.

Blood is on the floor, blood is on both of them, there is _so_ much blood on Akechi’s _face_ that Akira would have thought he was dying if they weren’t in this predicament. The smell is even worse and it’s horrible, really, that Akira practically associates it with the other at this point — who is clenching his jaw, perfect smile trying to find its way back on his face but it’s not working because he’s too broken to be anywhere near that word right now.

 

_”There is no us.”_

 

Akechi spits these words like it hurts him to say it, like he’s trying to believe it when he can’t, like he doesn’t want to say it at all and Akira furrows his brows. His own fists clenching as he tries to sit up as much as his sore body will allow while ignoring the annoying blurs in the corners of his eyes from the distorting Phantom Thief mask and his own glasses.

“You’re wrong,” He glares at the boy in front of him, the fire in his heart makes him feel like he’s about to be burned alive, he’s never been this _angry_ in his life, not even Shido’s law suit against him can up this, and Akechi flinches back, like he’ll crumble if he hears anymore, so Akira moves his shaking hands, trembling with adrenaline and he’s on _fire_ , “We can still try. We can still fight for this. _For us._ ”

Akechi looks like he’s about to rebuke, in a surely broken way with a shaky voice but Akira is not about to let his heart get broken — 

“Are you telling me this isn’t worth fighting for? That _we_ aren’t worth fighting for, _this_ ,” He grips onto Akechi’s forearms, the latter’s own hold on him tightening on reflex, “ _Us._ Are you saying none of this was worth any second of your fucking time?!”

He’s shouting, he knows and he knows he shouldn’t be but he’s just so infuriated that he can’t even begin to bring himself to care about the twinge in his heart when Akechi flinches again because Akira _has_ been fighting. Since the start, since he’s laid eyes on Akechi and knew he heard Morgana’s voice, since he came home to the cute and unfairly beautiful detective sitting by Le Blanc’s counter, since he heard Akechi say that he would kill him — He’s been fighting all of it just to love Goro, and he’s not about to let him disappear.

Akechi looks through him, unsteady eyes and flowing tears, smile all but upside down with an ugly imperfect shade of red on him and when he finally meets Akira’s eyes —

 

Akira is not a quiet person. He’s just selective about when and what he says. There’s perks to that.

He’s heard many things from being quiet. Ranging from rumors to secrets, he’s listened to people speaking of their worst fears to their biggest dreams. Their trust, their worries, their past and future and more, one would think he’s heard everything there is but there’s nothing like the sound of ringing in his ears while his heart is beating so loud that he wouldn’t know if he was thinking or talking out loud but at this moment, with ears somehow still finely tuned to always look out for the soft melody of a voice belonging to none other than Akechi Goro, he holds his breath.

 

“Maybe,” Akechi lets out a lifeless chuckle, “maybe there is hope,” and his heart flies to his throat, blood at the back of his tongue. Akechi smiles brokenly, again.

_“But it is not for us.”_

 

Akira has never heard his own heart break before.

It’s a silent scream, a foreign ache, the ringing dulled to background noise, but he doesn’t notice even as his hands fall to the floor, eyes darting between Akechi’s. He only feels something choking him, probably his own heart that he can’t swallow, and the absence of the fire that was boiling him alive, leaving nothing but the coldest of winters and goosebumps all over his skin.

Akechi is smiling and it is not him trying to put on a mask. It’s him, all him, open and honest and just how Akira loves but this cold and distant broken sad, _sad_ smile is nothing of what Akira wants, nothing what he wants to see, it’s just. Nothing.

Akechi’s own hands fall limp but he stands and looks down at the boy he loves, wearing the ever iconic Phantom Thief attire. His smile grows a tad wider, a tad more broken and his tears are still falling, like his heart that he leaves in his place. Akira doesn’t watch as he walks away, despite his brain shouting at him to move, to scream, to do something, _anything_ to stop the love of his pitiful life from walking away forever but his body won’t move. His mind is too busy flitting about their past, memories flying; memories of Akechi’s head in his lap as his fingers played with Akira’s, of when he woke up to Akechi’s sleeping face for the first time, when they first kissed, made love, confessed. 

The first time when he saw Akechi smile, really smile, and how his heart throbbed at the sight, how he wished he had a camera to take a picture of it and keep it forever, how at that moment he thought, _“I want to be with him forever, no matter what it takes.”_

 

Funny how forever can end in one sentence, in a broken smile, how it’s going to end with Akira’s death and Akechi — What’ll happen to him? Would the man with the black mask get to him? _Would he die too?_

The thought was fleeting as it came but now, in Akira’s rapid fire brain, it stayed, imprinting itself on him. Thoughts of Akechi on the ground, in a puddle of his own blood, a bullet or a knife deep in him, bleeding out— would he be alone? Would Akira be there? _Would he kill himself—_

 

Akira twists his body and he sees Akechi as he’s nearing the door, about to be gone for good and Akira shouts, “GORO!”

Akechi snaps his head back so fast that Akira might have been worried about whiplash but that’s not what he’s focused on right now, “I’m not giving up.”

He’s on his knees getting up despite the protests from his muscles, despite the pain because Akechi Goro is worth it, worth every drop of blood, every sore muscle, worth dying for and _fighting_ for. 

Akechi takes a step back in response and opens his mouth to question but Akira interrupts him, “I’m not letting you go,” and Akechi winces, eyes darting between the boy standing in front of him and the floor but Akira’s gaze is steady, as steady as when he’s about to take a treasure, steady as when he first put his hand to Goro’s face and told him he loved him, _and dear God, he fucking loves him_.

“Y-you can’t stop me from leaving this room,” Goro’s voice is shaky. “I’m not stopping you from leaving this room,” and his uncertain expression turns into confusion and it’s cute, it’s downright adorable even when they’re fighting about an actual life and death situation, he’s so stupidly fucking _cute_ and Akira —

“I love you.”

Goro freezes while Akira smiles.

“I love you and I’ll still keep loving you, even when you leave this room, even _if_ you shoot me dead,” he continues, taking slow steps to him, “you’re not going to stop that.”

The confused look doesn’t disappear, Goro doesn’t know what to do. He thought he had broken Akira but then this… _Of course_ , he laughs and Akira raises a brow. Of course, Akira wouldn’t give up, what was he thinking. Akira never gave up, that was why they were in this mess in the first place, because Akira pursued him and kept pushing, kept fighting and kept believing.

“How foolish of me,” Goro says through broken breaths of chuckles, “to truly think you’d give up.”

Akira is right in front of him when he gets his breath back and straightens up, a teasing smile on the Phantom Thief’s lips, “That’s what I’m here for. Always ready to surprise you,” taking a hold of his hand, Akira slowly brings it up to give it a kiss.

Goro hums in response, a soft, brighter, tiny smile on his face. 

“You,” he breathes the word on Akira’s mouth, watching as his pupils dilate and shivers in the pleasure of being the one who has the Almighty Joker’s attention, “are truly incorrigible.”

Akira huffs a laugh, “but that’s why you love me.”

“One of many reasons, yes,” and his smile widens.

 

They’re close, so, so close. A tiny more forward and their lips would touch but neither moves. Akira’s half lidded stare moves from Goro’s lips to his eyes and watches Goro’s own follow suit.

“Hope may not be for us,” he takes a breath, smiling at how Goro’s eyes flutter shut, how his cheeks are flushed with the loveliest tint of pink, how his smile widens the smallest bit, how this broken boy can be so, so, _so_ beautiful, and he breathes out. “But that just means we have to take it ourselves, by force if we have to.”

Goro laughs brightly and suddenly, in this dim lit room where blood smells like a distant memory and the only sound is a melody, Akira thinks it’s Summer.

“Truly incorrigible, you really are a Phantom Thief at heart, I must say, Joker,” Goro says, eyes opening again as he leans back and Akira smiles as he does the same. “I’m not going to give up,” and Goro rolls his eyes in good nature, “I know,” and the look he sends Akira reminds him why Summer is hot, why people need water and why the Sun is so bright.

“I look forward to seeing you again, Akira. Even if it’s not on the same side,” and Akira nods, not trusting his voice to speak because Goro is smiling. It’s a small smile but it’s real and honest and he looks like he’s shining and Akira thinks he’s falling in love all over again in a blood stained room that smells like flowers.

Akira thinks, as he imprints this image of Goro into his mind, slotting it right next to the infinite number of other mental photos of one Akechi Goro — No, he _knows_.

He’s going to win this, and he’s going to have Goro by his side at the end of it.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry not sorry i didn't let them kiss lmaooo
> 
> I wrote this in an hour ok, then took a few more to fix all them grammar n typos. it takes place no where tbh I didn't even finish the game before writing this, I just wrote it for a friend (winks u kno who u are) which is why this might have some weird parts that don't fall in with canon consistency oops. also what are titles lmfao, hope u liked it anyway, especially the end part ;^)


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